Torn
by Falling For You
Summary: The government takes Xavier hostage and threatens to destroy the mansion. Will the X-men be able to stop them? This story centers around Jean and shows how she grows by accomplishing things she never thought she could do. Jean/Scott Jean/Logan Please R/R!
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-men comics or anything else that belongs to Marvel (although I wish I did, hehe), nor any of the characters mentioned in this story. So please, please, please, do not sue me because I am making absolutely NO money off of this!

A/N: Hello! This is my very first X-men fanfic so I'm kind of nervous about writing this, but I'll give it my best shot. This is only the prologue, but there is much more to come and I promise I will update future chapters as soon as I can. I would gladly appreciate it if you would review after you finish reading. I am open to constructive criticism or suggestions, but please, no flames!

**Prologue**

The sun shown brightly and a cool breeze blew lightly, rustling the branches of the trees. The mansion lay peacefully on a small hill, overlooking the pleasant landscape near Westchester, New York.

Although it was rather peaceful outside the walls of the mansion, it was a completely different atmosphere inside. It was filled with bustling school children hurrying to their classes and teachers scurrying about, preparing their next lesson. 

Apart from the regular commotion of the school day, a man sat in the corner of the main room, smiling at the students and teachers as they passed by.

He had built the mansion and intended it to be a school for children who possessed special gifts. They could learn how to control their powers and use them for the better. It was also a safe haven for the gifted children; a place where they wouldn't be considered as 'freaks', but the school served for another purpose. It was the headquarters of the X-men.

Finally, the halls quieted down as the last couple students filed into their classes. The man rolled his way back into his office, but to his surprise he found a man standing there.

"We meet again, Charles." The man said with a devilish grin.

"William…How could you have–"

"That's not important…Although, I am afraid I have some bad news for you, Charles." 

Stryker paused for a moment, watching the confused look appear on the Professor's face, but his confusion soon turned into concern when he at last understood.

"You can't!" The Professor cried out.

"This school now belongs to the government." 

Suddenly, the door to the office flew open as seven of Stryker's soldiers ran into the room, aiming their guns at the Professor. 

"I suggest you step aside, Charles, or we will have to take the school by force."

"You can't do this! I have devoted my entire life's work to this school; to protect the mutants. Where will they turn after –"

"There won't be any mutants once we're through with this school." 

And with that, Stryker pulled out a revolver and shot the Professor with dead aim, right between his eyes.

*~*~*~*~*~*

A tall, red-haired woman stood in front of a class full of young mutants. She had been having headaches all throughout the day, but she wasn't quite sure what was causing them. It was common for her to have headaches every now and then, so she tried to forget about it and focus on her students.

"Alright class. Today we will be furthering our knowledge on evolution." 

The class heaved a sigh, but continued to listen. 

"As we all know, evolution is the key to our mutation, but how can we –"

Suddenly, a sharp pain struck her head. Although she was used to having headaches, she had never experienced a pain like this. She sensed something terrible had happened.

"Ms. Grey?" A student asked worriedly. "Are you alright?"

"Stay here class. I'll be right back." The students flashed each other concerned looks as Jean left the room.

Just as she stepped into the main hall, a loud boom sounded followed by the piercing screams of children. Pieces of the ceiling started falling to the floor as a rush of heat filled the room. Bright orange flames could be seen from above, engulfing everything in its path.

Jean was knocked down to the floor from the blast of the explosion. Shortly after, a heavy wooden beam fell flat on her chest, pinning her to the ground.

She tried to use her telekinesis to move the wooden beam, but no matter how hard she concentrated, it wouldn't budge. It was almost as if her powers were being held back somehow.

As she lay there, panicking students ran through the halls, trying to escape the fiery hell the school had become. Teachers tried to calm the children down, but their fear took over.

No one noticed the trapped woman amongst the confusion and panic. Jean had tried to keep optimistic about the situation. She knew she would somehow make it through this, just as she had made it through so many other terrible situations, but her optimism soon began to dwindle. Her eyes began tearing up. This would be the end.

She could feel the flames gaining ever closer and she was beginning to feel faint from inhaling all the smoke in the air. The noise around her slowly began to fade as everything started to turn black, but in the distance she could hear someone calling her name. The darkness faded and she could feel a hand gently shaking her back to consciousness.

"Jean! Jean!"

She slowly opened her eyes and was met with Logan's gaze. He kneeled beside her; his hand cupped her cheek as he wiped away her tears.

"Jean, I almost thought you were dead. I'm going to try and lift this off of you."

She nodded and watched as Logan gathered all his strength to try and lift wooden beam off of her. Again, it seemed as if some sort of unseen force was holding it down because it remained motionless. Jean knew he wouldn't be able to lift it no matter how hard he tried; no one could.

"Logan, you must go!" 

She said hoarsely. She could feel her life force draining from her.

"No! I can't just leave you here to die."

"But time is running out."

The flames were now grazing her legs and once the wooden beam caught on fire, there would be no hope left for Jean.

"No…" He tried to lift the wooden beam again, but was unsuccessful. He wouldn't let her go.

"Logan, time is running out…You've got to get out of here. The X-men need you."

With the last of her strength, she placed her hand on his cheek and smiled. Then she slowly closed her eyes as the flames engulfed her body.

Logan had no choice but to leave Jean and escape from the burning school. He could barely see where he was going because of all the smoke, but he managed to find a door leading outside.

Just before he left, he turned around to take one last look at the woman he was always fond of. Flashes of the first time he met Jean ran through his head and all the other experiences they have had together. His eyes began to welt up as he whispered his last words to her.

"I'll always love you, Jean." 


	2. Reflections

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-men comics or anything else that belongs to Marvel (although I wish I did, hehe), nor any of the characters mentioned in this story. So please, please, please, do not sue me because I am making absolutely NO money off of this!  
  


A/N: Hello again! I just wanted to apologize for taking so long to update. *blushes* I'm probably making a bad first impression, but I promise in the future I'll try and update as soon as possible. I also would like to thank all of my reviewers and I made comments in response to your reviews at the end of the chapter. Anyway, I'm about to fall asleep on the keyboard if I don't go to bed soon (It's 2:30 am) so I hope you enjoy this chappy and chapter two is already in the works!

**Chapter One: Reflections**

She jolted awake, her eyes wide as beads of sweat trickled down her forehead. Paralyzed by her fear, she lay there trying to recall the flash of images that flew through her mind, but she couldn't exactly remember what they were about. Only that they were so terrible she didn't care to witness them again.

She arose from the twisted sheets of her bed and warily made her way to the bathroom. She ran cold water from the sink and ran her hands through it, lightly splashing her face. She felt a little more refreshed, but some kind of bad feeling still lingered in the back of her mind.

She paused for a moment and looked up to see a beautiful woman staring back at her. Her long, red hair brought out her eyes which were deep pools of green, and her skin almost looked as if it were made from porcelain. As she looked at her reflection in the mirror, she couldn't help but feel different. Her skin was even paler than usual and a few wrinkle now appeared on her forehead. She was slowly losing the youth that once burned so brightly in her heart. Was she wasting away her life by being part of the X-men? Surely she couldn't be there for them forever, she wanted to live a normal life; get a real job and maybe start a family.

_'No…' _She though, _'My place is here with the X-men.'_

Suddenly a stabbing pain shot through her head and it felt as though her head would burst. She had never experienced a pain such as this before, but it felt vaguely familiar…She had felt this same pain in her dream right before she died. She cried out in pain and clutching her head she collapsed, hitting her head on the sink. She was knocked out cold and blood started dripping from the newly formed gash on her head.

"Jean! Jean, wake up!"

She could hear a very distant voice in the background and it slowly became louder and louder. She started to gain feeling again as a hand rapidly shook her shoulder and she came back to consciousness. Wincing at the gash on her forehead, she tried to sit up, but a hand gently nudged her back down.

" Easy now…You hit your head pretty badly." A familiar voice said as the man grabbed a damn wash clothe and carefully held it to her wound.

"Scott? W-what happened?" Jean said hoarsely.

"I'm not quite sure…I woke up to your screaming and ran in here to find you laying unconscious on the floor." He furrowed his brow with concern and ran his fingers through her hair. "Are you feeling alright? Is it your telepathy?"

"I…Yeah, I'm f-fine. I just had this…" She pause for a moment, unable to speak. A million thoughts ran through her head as she finally realized what this could mean.

"Jean?"

"…this dream. It was almost as if it were real." At that moment Scott saw something in Jean's eyes he had never seen before. It was a look of certain indescribable fear that told Scott this was more than a dream.

"What exactly happened in your…your dream?"

"I'm not really sure…It all happened so fast. Everything was a blur."

"It's alright. Maybe if you can try and probe your own mind for the images you saw using your telepathy."

Jean nodded and closed her eyes. She concentrated hard in hopes of recovering the lost images from her dream.

Scott watched her silently for what seemed like hours, yet only a couple minutes actually passed. Just before he was about to give up and call Jean back to her normal state, she spoke.

"Fire everywhere…Panicking children are running up and down the halls looking for a way to escape…Screaming…T-there's a man with a gun…He's - Oh God!" Her eyes flung open and she gasped for air. Scott cupped her cheek, lightly caressing it as he tries to calm her down.

"What did you see?" He asks, slightly alarmed.

Jean didn't answer. Instead, she pulled herself out of his arms and threw the was clothe from her head. She quickly dashed out of the bathroom, her white nightgown flailing behind her.

"Jean, wait! What is it?" Scott called to her, but it was too late - She had already disappeared out of sight.

As she ran along the dark corridor she could feel the coldness from the wood floor being absorbed into her feet with every step she took, sending a cold chill down her spine. She nearly tripped down the stairs because she was running so fast, yet she didn't want to face the terrible truth that lie ahead.

Finally, she stopped in front of an elaborate door and she placed her trembling hand on the door knob. She hesitated for a moment, but she knew she had to discover for herself whether her dream was just that - a dream - or whether it was something more. She took a deep breath as she slowly turned the door knob and with a creak, the door opened.

She remained standing at the doorway as she peered into the dark room. A large desk sat in the middle of the room with a couple of chairs opposite of it. There were many books lying around, all of them either sitting upon the dusty shelves of the bookcases lining the walls or strewn across the desk. A shiny chess set sat in the corner of the room, it's pieces seemed to be left there as if someone never finished their game. Lastly, there were two big windows on the far wall where Jean could see the stars shining through from the clear night sky.

Suddenly light poured through the windows and Jean was merely a young student learning to control her powers. This room held many memories for her and at the very moment she stepped into the room, it was as if she stepped into some kind of time capsule.

She remembered how she came into this room everyday for personal training for her newly discovered powers. She never thought she'd be good enough to fully control them, yet she couldn't help but smile at the memory of movie her first object using her telekinesis: a book. For at least a month or two after, she'd use her telekinesis to do almost anything. Even to play chess with the professor that taught her everything she knew till this day.

"Jean, why did you come to Professor Xavier's office?"

Jean jumped at the sudden interruption from her childhood memories and she came back to the painful reality.

Scott was standing beside her with a confused look on his face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's alright." Jean replied quietly as she looked around the abandoned room, but it was just that which worried her - It was completely abandoned.

She walked into the room toward the back of the office which was the Professor's sleeping quarters.

_'He's go to be in here…He wasn't in his office.' _Jean though as she grew even more nervous, but as she peered into the bedroom she found that it was also deserted. She breathed a sigh of a relief, but if the Professor wasn't in either of his rooms, where else could he have gone?

The rear window drew her attention. It was wide open and a cool breaze came through, blowing the torn curtains and sending a chill throughout her entire body. And at that moment she knew…

"Scott!" Jean called to him in the other room with a panicked tone in her voice. 

"Jean, what is it now?" He said, rather impatiently as he ran into the bedroom and looked to Jean, hoping he'd finally get some answers from her, but he soon lost all his impatience to concern as he came to meet Jean's eyes.  
"He's gone, Scott…Someone's taken the Professor."

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**Little Took**: Thanks for being my first reviewer!!! After I looked back on it I realized my story is kind of like the movie, but I assure you I'm going to go in a different direction and try to throw in lots of surprises on the way! 

**Jessica**: Hehe, yeah I suppose I could've written those lines together. I'm just beginning to get the hang of writing fanfics.

**Nightcrawler**: Wolverine/Jean is always good. :p I read your fanfic and I think it's great!!! I apologize though that I haven't have time to review. I'll certainly go back and make some comments.

**JaminJellyBean**: Sometimes one word says it all, hehe.

**mindalme**: Thank you! Short and simple reviews are always nice too. J 

**Elizabeth Potter**: Thanks so much for reading this and give me your comments even though you don't really like X-men. I look up to you as a fanfic writer and I can't wait to see your comments for this chappy.

**Spicey****-Muffin**: Thanks! I love surprise reviews. Hehe, keep reading and you'll find out! :D


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